Yankee from Alabama

Last week, following out a more or less normal routine, Mel Allen, 38, broadcast eight New York Yankees games for radio & TV (in New York, Philadelphia and Boston); spoke and played softball (pitcher) at three charity benefits (in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Long Island) ; recorded three Popsicle Clubhouse shows and made two Movietone newsreels. He also added another award to his big collection--this time, the "Mighty Monarch of TV" award ("whatever the hell that is"), presented, with two kisses, by television's Faye Emerson. Then early this week, he flew to Detroit for a more specific honor: announcing, for the 12th time, baseball's annual All-Star game.

A Blush in Manhattan. For all this work, Mel Allen gets a flower a day from an anonymous woman, 1,000 letters a week, $100,000 a year and the satisfaction of having one of radio's most familiar voices ("How about that!"). But when a Manhattan waiter told him last week that he recognized his voice the minute he heard it, Allen blushed--a reminder that big city fame & fortune have not entirely changed the Melvin Allen Israel who was born the son of a general store proprietor in Johns, Ala. (pop. 1,404).

There, from the time he could walk faster than a toddle, he played baseball ardently but ineptly; at the University of Alabama he failed to make the team. In 1934 he took time out on Saturdays from his law studies to do a fill-in job announcing at a Birmingham radio station. Sport-caster Ted Husing heard him, advised him to try CBS in New York. Allen passed a CBS audition in 1937, before long was announcing special events at $150 a week--a sum which made it easy for him to forget his ambitions for the law. In 1939, he became a major league announcer; with time out for three years in the Army, he has been at the top ever since. He has been chosen eight times for the World Series, and has won the annual Sporting News announcer award five times. Allen alone of the top announcers "simulcasts" --broadcasts games simultaneously for both radio & TV.

A Place in the Country. He has won his place with a blend of "the fan approach," and a scholar's serious interest in the fine points of the game. His delivery is warmly enthusiastic without drifting into hysteria; his Southern accent is mild, not wild. Most important, he still adores baseball and never expects to tire of it. "Baseball," he explains, "is a vicarious thrill. I get to play all ten positions."

Allen's thorough devotion to the game makes him a hard man to work for,* but off the air he is a soft touch for old sports who need five bucks, and he often weeps at the movies. Still a bachelor, he has established his parents in a new house in Westchester County, and is especially proud of the honor that recently came to his mother: Sports Mother of 1951.

*He has a staff of five including a pretty, personal press agent who, with the help of a Cadillac, sees to it that he fills his busy schedule.

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